17hmr vs 22lr vs 22wmr

22 LR vs 22 WRM accuacy comes in at a wash for me. the savage, marlin and mossberg 22 mags i tried were very accurate and not at all inferior to 22 LR. plus when i hit a gopher they sometimes did impressive stunts, like 2 foot vertical jumps. (a plug here for winchester 222/333/555 which are awesome on gophers in their own right)
the. 22 mag in an accurate gun is an awesome choice when extra power or range is needed. granted the HMR has an accuracy edge at longer range but i see no reason to get one
 
17 mach 2 was the best choice but it has been dropped. However the 22 Lr is the cheapest and available in the widest platforms.
I played with the 17 hmr and couldn't find a reason to pick it over the 22 win mag for hunting. I hunt frozen ditches for coyotes. A 20 yard or less shot with a 22 wm has always provided enough energy and penetration to drop a big coyote even when shots are further. I've had to follow up several and lost 2 shot with the hmr. Entrance or splash wound clearly visible tight behind the shoulder. Skinned coyotes have shown good expansion with the heavier 22 wm offering and devastating wound channels with the vmax. The 17 hmr has drastic and immediate expansion and sends fragments only a few inches.
For me the 22 wm has its place and my other small game and varminting is done with the mach 2 and various 22 Lr guns

If you're truly after performance I'd look into a 17 or 20 centerfire or even the smaller cased 22 center fires as the price or rimfires continues to grow. Get into reloading.
 
brybenn said:
17 mach 2 was the best choice but it has been dropped. However the 22 Lr is the cheapest and available in the widest platforms.
I played with the 17 hmr and couldn't find a reason to pick it over the 22 win mag for hunting. I hunt frozen ditches for coyotes. A 20 yard or less shot with a 22 wm has always provided enough energy and penetration to drop a big coyote even when shots are further. I've had to follow up several and lost 2 shot with the hmr. Entrance or splash wound clearly visible tight behind the shoulder. Skinned coyotes have shown good expansion with the heavier 22 wm offering and devastating wound channels with the vmax. The 17 hmr has drastic and immediate expansion and sends fragments only a few inches.
For me the 22 wm has its place and my other small game and varminting is done with the mach 2 and various 22 Lr guns

If you're truly after performance I'd look into a 17 or 20 centerfire or even the smaller cased 22 center fires as the price or rimfires continues to grow. Get into reloading.
Click to expand...

17mach2 rifles can still be found, and Hornady just released another batch of ammunition. They generally have CCI load a batch every year or two. Someday I may use up my remaining 15.000 rounds of Eley 17mach2 ammunition, and I may actually have to buy some Hornady loads.
 
I just spent three days shooting gophers. Every day was fairly breezy and sometimes annoyingly so. I can't say that I noticed any problem with .17HMR being blown off course. I was whacking gophers anywhere from 25 yards to maybe 100 or so. I aimed right at them and seemed to be hitting them okay.

I used about 200 American Eagle HP in a CZ 455, an RIA semi, and a Chiappa M-22 with a Tasco red dot. The Eagles made short work of the cute little gophers. :p
 
stubblejumper said:
17mach2 rifles can still be found, and Hornady just released another batch of ammunition. They generally have CCI load a batch every year or two. Someday I may use up my remaining 15.000 rounds of Eley 17mach2 ammunition, and I may actually have to buy some Hornady loads.
Click to expand...

Hornady returned my emails saying they wouldn't let it die but didn't have a date on the next batch. Hopefully it hits the shelves soon

Wish I had your stash
 
Jabotinsky said:
I love the .22WMR but Rob is not wrong. Ammo is not cheap to feed these.
Click to expand...

Jabotinsky, thank you for the kind words.
I was merely pointing out the obvious to those who may have missed the days of yore when ammo was inexpensive.
One can justify spending on most anything.
It is when one has to explain to someone else ones justification lol .
I like shooting lots of RimFire of all types and makes, feeding is the second part of the puzzle.
I would have liked to have shot the 5mm back in the day, but it wasn't around for my enjoyment at the time.

.22 RimFire shooting offers a lot of opportunities, from thrifty to shoot, accurate and common to source and one can learn a lot by starting with a small caliber firearm like the .22

Tight Groups,
Rob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom